The present invention relates to an apparatus for reversing the direction of cigarettes and more particularly filter-tipped cigarettes.
Generally, the filter-tipped cigarettes are made as follows. A piece of filter for two cigarettes is inserted between two cigarettes arranged axially; a sheet of paper is wound around them and pasted to form a single bar of cigarette; the cigarette bar is then cut in half at the center of the filter to form two filter-tipped cigarettes.
In the cigarette making machine based on the above principle, two lines of cigarettes oriented in the opposite directions are obtained. For convenience of operations to be done at later processes by the receiving or storage equipment, it is required that the two lines of cigarettes be converted into a single line of cigarettes oriented in the same direction. This provides an important requirement for the present day cigarette making machine and requires one of the two lines of cigarettes to be reversed in direction and combined with the other line of cigarettes into a single line.
One typical equipment that meets the above requirement has the construction in which a plurality of slots are formed in the peripheral surface of the drum and a guide member is provided to raise and set upright the cigarettes being carried in the slots and then overturn them.
This machine has a transfer drum provided with an odd number of slots in the periphery of the drum in a 180.degree. arc. The transfer drum has an inlet for accepting a pair of two opposing cigarettes at a time into each alternate slot. The drum has an outlet for a first line, namely, one of the two lines of cigarettes on the drum. The cigarettes in the second line on the drum are overturned while being carried on the drum through a complete turn. The cigarettes which were overturned and aligned with the first line of cigarettes are taken out from the slots at the outlet.
In this machine, a stationary inclined guide is provided outside the drum, spanning over the cigarette overturning section and a suction hole is formed at the buttom of each slot. The cigarette is overturned with one end held by suction and the other end guided along the inclined guide.
One of the two lines of cigarettes on the drum is transferred from the inlet to the outlet. But the other line of cigarettes is carried by the drum through one complete turn, during which time the cigarettes of the other line are overturned and aligned with the first line of cigarettes. This overturning process is performed continuously and for this purpose, the apparatus is characterized by an odd number of slots which enables the pair of opposite cigarettes to be fed into the every other slot in the drum.
The suction hole for holding one end of the cigarette is provided in each slot. The slots that do not contain the cigarettes to be overturned waste vacuum in the overturning section and the air leaks.
In recent years as the process speed of cigarette making machines is required to be increased, the air leakage has become an important problem. That is, as the rotating speed of the drum increases, the centrifugal force acting on the cigarettes also increases and a higher vacuum pressure is required for holding the reversing cigarettes. There is a growing demand for reduction in the capacity of vacuum source which tends to increase and also for reduction in noise produced from the suction holes that are not holding the cigarettes.